Downtown Tarpon Springs Is Keeping Later Hours This Fall

At 10 South Pinellas Avenue, Catalina's La Cantina now serves until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Six years ago that address was only an announcement. Catalina's first said it would open in 2019, and it is now in a soft opening with handmade tortillas and a large tequila collection. Around the corner, an empty lot on East Tarpon Avenue is one City Commission vote away from becoming a small hotel.

Either one could be filed as ordinary fall news. Read next to the fall 2026 calendar, they show a pattern. The Sponge Docks still host the big daytime weekends. Downtown has become where the evenings happen, and the new openings add to that.

A Restaurant Seven Years in the Making Keeps Evening Hours

Catalina's La Cantina does not serve lunch. Its listed hours are 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 4 to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The menu rotates and has been in development for the better part of a decade. That makes it a dinner spot and a late-night spot. Much of the downtown calendar this fall runs in the same hours.

First Friday is the clearest example. October's edition ran on Oct. 2 from 6 to 10 p.m. at 100 E. Tarpon Ave. Parking was free, and a shuttle ran from the Dog/Splash Park at 508 Live Oak St. November's First Friday is Nov. 6, again 6 to 10 p.m. The Tarpon Springs Merchants Association is organizing it under the theme "All That Jazz." A new restaurant one block off Tarpon Avenue that stays open an hour after First Friday ends gives those evenings somewhere to go next.

The Tarpon Springs Haunted History Tour also keeps late hours. It runs at 8 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 31. The route covers historic sites downtown, and the listing maps it to Lake Tarpon Avenue. For anyone hosting guests between now and New Year's Eve, the 8 p.m. start leaves time for dinner first.

The Lot on East Tarpon Avenue Goes to a Vote on Oct. 13

The second change is slower, and it would put overnight guests in the middle of downtown.

The Tarpon Registry would be a two-story, 11,731-square-foot mixed-use building on a vacant lot at 144 E. Tarpon Ave. Plans call for a 15-room boutique hotel above ground-floor retail, a restaurant, event space and an open courtyard. The Planning and Zoning Board unanimously recommended approval of the site plan, and the City Commission is scheduled to consider it at its Oct. 13 meeting, according to the Tampa Bay Beacons.

The lot has a long history. Granville E. Noblit, one of the city's original settlers, put up the first of three buildings there in 1906. Over the next several decades the buildings held a warehouse store and a bakery, with apartments upstairs. The city bought the property, and by the time it was demolished in 2009, trees were growing through the roof of the last building standing. In 2012 the city transferred the land to its Community Redevelopment Agency, and the search for a developer took more than a decade. The CRA board picked Infill Studio's boutique hotel proposal in October 2025. The Heritage Preservation Board granted a certificate of appropriateness this July.

Planning and Zoning Director Allie Keen described the city's interest in the project to the board:

"The proposed uses will increase downtown activity and benefit the surrounding businesses," adding that the project "not only provides retail and event space but also offers much-needed and desired lodging within the heart of downtown."

A few details will matter to people who already walk this block. The downtown plan has no parking requirement for properties on Tarpon Avenue or Court Street. Even so, the site plan reserves four spaces on Court Street in front of the hotel for guests loading and unloading luggage. Development partner Joe Harrington told the board that historic foundation stone will be built into the lobby and that the project's public art requirement will be met inside the hotel. The board also recommended giving the developer 12 months instead of six to apply for a building permit after site plan approval. Even if the commission approves it on Oct. 13, construction will not start right away.

The Sponge Docks Still Own the Daylight Weekends

The docks still host the biggest weekends of the fall, and those weekends mostly run in daylight.

The Sponge Docks Fall Craft Art Festival takes over 735 Dodecanese Blvd. on Oct. 10 and 11. The Tarpon Springs Merchants Association presents it and SIK Promotions produces it, and admission is free. The producer lists Saturday hours of 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. One regional tourism listing shows 10 to 5 on both days, so check Saturday's closing time before planning a late visit.

A month later comes the 38th annual Tarpon Springs Seafood Festival on Nov. 7 and 8, also hosted by the Merchants Association. It runs from noon to 9 p.m. along the docks with a chef's competition and live music all weekend. It is the one big docks event this fall that runs well into the evening. It also starts the morning after November's First Friday, so the town has back-to-back nights on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7.

The docks are getting a new storefront, too. Dreamy Scoops, an ice cream and gelato shop from owner Saban Imeri, is preparing to open at 927 Dodecanese Blvd., Suite 3, with espresso drinks made from Lavazza coffee. In early September the shop said it was three to four weeks from opening. No grand-opening date has been announced, so it is still listed here as coming soon.

Where the Two Ends Meet

A few events on the fall calendar cover both ends of town, and their schedules show the same split.

• Taste of Tarpon, Oct. 17, noon to 4:30 p.m. The Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce bills it as "From Downtown to the Dock." Participants check in at COhatch, 123 E. Tarpon Ave., pick up a map of official stops, vote for a "Best of the Taste," and enter a grand-prize drawing. Tickets are on the Chamber's event page.
• Wine Walk, Nov. 28. The Merchants Association lists different hours for each end. Downtown runs 4 to 9 p.m. and the Sponge Docks run 4 to 8 p.m. That leaves an hour after the docks wrap up, and anyone who starts at the docks and ends downtown fits both sets of hours.
• Early Elf Art Market, Nov. 21 and 22, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This one is downtown only, along East Court Street. It is a daytime market and runs on the same street where the Tarpon Registry would load and unload guests.

One date sits outside both districts and deserves a spot on the calendar. Veterans Fest is Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. at the Union Academy Family Center, 401 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., organized by Citizens Alliance for Progress Inc., according to the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs.

December Stacks the Evenings Downtown

The holiday calendar puts the split into its sharpest form. In the first week of December, the town holds evening events on four of five nights between Dec. 1 and Dec. 5, and two of the biggest are downtown.

Several of these listings still disagree. For the Sponge Docks tree lighting, Explore Tarpon Springs lists a 5:30 p.m. start and the Merchants Association lists 5 p.m. Arriving at 5 covers both. For Snow Place Like Tarpon Springs, Explore Tarpon Springs shows 5 to 10 p.m. and the Merchants Association's entry shows 5 to 6 p.m. The 2026 boat parade listing from the Tarpon Springs Yacht Club gives the date and hours but not the route. Last year's city page has a different date, so don't rely on last year's route or viewing spots. Explore Tarpon Springs says more details on the Christmas Parade are still to come.

Proceeds and gifts from Merry Martini on Dec. 5 support local schoolchildren, and the Merchants Association organizes it. It is also the only downtown evening event that week that runs as late as Catalina's stays open on Saturdays.

Halloween is the one gap. No downtown or Sponge Docks trick-or-treat event had been confirmed for 2026 as of early October. The listings that come up in searches are from 2025.

If you're working out how a hotel on East Tarpon Avenue or a new restaurant on Pinellas Avenue might change your block, Christina Colon can walk you through it. She follows Tarpon Springs as closely as the rest of Tampa Bay. Let's Connect.